FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was late in the morning in the middle of one particular week when things began to change. The day had begun like any other, and Freddie and the others were already halfway through one of their self-guided study sessions when a loud klaxon began blaring from the speakers in the room's ceiling. Everyone froze in their chairs, and the face of the teacher that was supervising them went quickly pale. Freddie listened to the noise, trying to remember what the sound meant from the emergency flyer that someone had left in the employee break room some months ago, and which he'd managed to sneak a glance at when no one was paying attention. From the pattern of the siren, he thought that it was related to something called a "lockdown alert," although he wasn't quite sure what it meant. And besides that, what happened next didn't seem much like a lockdown at all.

A few moments after the siren went off, the teacher retrieved her cellphone and dialed a number quickly, and her face seemed to look even more shocked upon hearing what the person on the other end had to say. She set the phone down, stared straight ahead for a moment, and then stood up and walked to the door, throwing it open. Not sure what was going on, Freddie followed her to the door. Sticking his head out into the hallway, he could see her running towards one of the locked doors with the complicated passcodes. Punching in her code, she threw the door open, and started running even faster before disappearing around a bend in the hallway beyond.

There was a thudding of footsteps coming from the other direction, and Freddie watched as several of the doctors and scientists pounded down the hallway, their lab coats fluttering behind them. Some had purses or bags hastily slung over their shoulders, and their faces seemed to portray a mixture of fear and blind panic. They almost seemed to trip over each other in their race down the hallway, and Freddie thought about following them, but one of their assistants stayed behind to close the double doors after them. When Freddie asked him what was going on, though, the man wouldn't reply, instead sitting down in a nearby chair by the side of the hallway and staring down at his feet, barely moving at all and seemingly lost in thought.

Freddie and the others didn't really know what to do, or even what was going on. One by one the rest of them poked their heads out around the door, and then into the hallway, puzzled by the sudden lack of people. They wandered around, most of them using their hands to tamp their ears down tightly against their heads, shielding them from the klaxon that continued to blare out of every speaker.

After several minutes, though, the klaxons stopped, and a minute after that the secured double doors flashed green and swung back open. Behind the doors stood several of the doctors and scientists, although they weren't alone. Most of them were also looking down at their feet, and each of them were held firmly by the arms by a pair of solid-looking men in dark, formal suits. The group marched solemnly down the hallway, all of the doctors looking steadily away, although a few of the assistants shot them a guilty-looking glance as they passed. Another pair of men collected the seated assistant, clacking a pair of metal circles in place around his wrists, and marched him off with the rest of the group. Soon, they had all disappeared through another set of locked doors, the ones that Freddie remembered led back to the growth chambers.

Once again, they were momentarily alone, but that soon changed as a whole host of other people began to swarm through the facility. Some wore suits similar to the men that had pressed through before, usually with some sort of photo credentials clipped to their lapels, and others wore lab coats similar to the ones the scientists had used. Still others wore black uniforms and windbreakers with the letters CSSPP emblazoned in bright yellow lettering across the back. Most of them went poking around the facility, punching open all of the doors that were normally locked from a printed list of codes, and taking pictures with a variety of large cameras. Several of them, however, came over to Freddie and the others, and after asking whether they were all right, quickly gave them a cursory examination: shining an instrument with a bright light into their eyes and ears, placing a stethoscope to their chests over their shirts, and wrapping their arms in a pressure cuff that puffed up rapidly and then deflated with the hiss of escaping air. Sufficiently satisfied that they were doing decently, some of the windbreaker-clad people herded them back into their bedroom, and a few minutes later a different group brought the girls back in to join them. Two of the men in suits quickly moved to stand in front of the door, making it clear that they were going to stay put in the room for the time being - and then mutely refusing to answer the questions that sixteen startled and confused young people began to blurt out.

Freddie and the others quickly gave up trying to figure out what was going on. While a few of them were fairly upset about the sudden confusion flooding into the only world they had ever known, and were huddled closely together for comfort, Freddie and most of the others seemed more curious than overly concerned. Freddie pulled out his tablet, and when the men at the door didn't move to stop him, he turned it on and tried to see if there was anything he could find through the internet filters. He quickly came up short, though, as apparently the agents had cut the connection as part of their raid. He satisfied himself instead by looking through random entries on one of the encyclopedia programs, trying not to think too hard about what the men by the door signified in terms of their fates.

Eventually, the men stepped aside, and another group of men, this time in lab coats, herded Freddie and the others down the hall to the dining room. The staff that were usually there were missing, and the buffet was empty of food. On each of the tables, however, were stacks of white boxes, which were quickly opened to reveal a variety of pizzas. It was a food that they were rarely served, so they dug into it eagerly, Dwight munching on a slice with brightly colored peppers on top while Freddie and Tommy dug into slices topped with a wide variety of seasoned meat. After they had finished eating, the boys and girls were taken in separate shifts to wash up, and then they were all returned to the one bedroom. The lights were turned out soon afterwards, although light continued to stream in from the open doorway, still partially blocked by their two serious-looking guards.

It was unusual to have the girls back in the room, and when they all huddled together on their nest of bedding it was certainly more crowded and warm. Feeling the warmth of the girls snuggled in next to him, Freddie's mind went back unbidden to the last close experience he had had with them, some years before. He knew, though, that nothing similar could happen now - even if the girls had been in the mood, the men by the door certainly would have stopped them. At the same time, though, his body reacted as expected, his trunks soon feeling a couple sizes too small in the crotch. Trying to do what they usually did, though, seemed far too awkward to consider with the girls around, and he didn't know what the guards would do if they saw him and the other boys even just doing what they normally did at night. Instead, he tried to just snuggle in, close his eyes, and hope that the feelings would eventually fade away. They did, after a long while, although judging by the tossing and turning he could feel and hear going on around him, he was hardly alone in his frustration. Finally, after what seemed like ages, he settled into a shallow, fitful sleep, and was jolted back awake when the room lights came on seemingly earlier than they were supposed to.

After breakfast, they didn't go back to their bedroom - instead, they were led along an unfamiliar hallway and into a new room, this one dominated by a large wooden table with a few dozen swivel chairs scattered around its elongated sides. Freddie and the others clambered into them, looking at each other around the table for a moment. Then came a whirring noise off to the side, and a white backdrop extended down automatically along the room's far wall, clacking down in to place a moment before a projector fired up to display a computerized image on it. The image seemed to be of a generic computer desktop, although the wallpaper was a dark blue color, with clean, yellow block letters spelling out CSSPP in the middle. Freddie stared at it curiously, even as several men in dark suits walked up to the front of the room and stood to either side of the display.

The one to the right of the display removed something from his pocket and waved it generally at the screen, which flashed and opened up what looked to be some sort of slideshow. The first slide contained the words "CSSPP and You" in the middle of it, but not much else. Turning back towards them, the man began to speak.

"Good morning. My name is Emmett Markham, and as you can probably tell by the screen, I work for a branch of the government known as the CSSPP. What that stands for is the Created Sentient Species Protection and Prev- er, let's just say it stands for Protection Project. What's important is, we're here to help."

He clicked something on the object in his hand, and the slide changed over to a photograph. It showed a canine-looking person, not all that dissimilar to Tommy in his facial features, but with bright blue fur and a puzzled expression on his face.

"I'm sure that you have a lot of questions about what's been taking place over the past day or so. I apologize that we haven't been able to talk to you much before now, as we've been very busy trying to sort out everything that's happened in the past few days. In order to begin answering some of your questions, let me first address perhaps one of the most pertinent ones: you're not alone."

He flipped the slide again, and this one displayed a group photo of a group of kids similar to them, lab-coated scientists standing behind them. "The group you can see in that photo is one of many, many different groups that we've discovered in the past few days. What we know so far is that there were hundreds of scientists working in concert on creating you and others like you, and in many respects, they were wildly successful. In total, our operation has uncovered over 1800 hybrid individuals like yourselves, all around your apparent age."

The slide flipped to a series of lab-coated scientists being led somewhere by a group of people in CSSPP windbreakers. "Unfortunately, as you may have guessed by now, the program they were involved with was not, strictly speaking, something they were allowed to do." He paused, as though considering something. "Given your isolation, you might not have heard about this, but your program was not the first of its kind. The person in that earlier slide was part of a different hybridization project, run by a man named Anatoliy Dubrovnikov. His program brought these sorts of experiments into the public eye, and sparked a discussion on the ethics of doing so that led to the types of processes used to create you being made illegal."

Seeing the concerned looks on their faces at that comment, though, he quickly backpedaled. "That's not to say that you are illegal, of course! While the methods used to create you were banned, and the scientists will have to face the consequences of their actions, none of the fault extents to you, as you had no choice in the matter. As you are a created sentient species, according to the Sentience Protection Act enacted in 2018, you are nominally entitled to the rights and responsibilities of a naturally-born U.S. Citizen, which you are considered to be. However, because of your... unique standing in society, it's not quite as simple as just letting you out into the world to seek your fortunes."

The slide flipped again, to the silhouette of a person mostly camouflaged by the loose biohazard suit wrapped around them. "As a newly created species, there are a number of things that we don't yet know about you. In the past, these situations necessitated a period of isolated quarantine, to ensure that there were no communicable contagions or other side effects from contact between humans and the particular species in question. However, in other cases, we also didn't have years and years of available research notes and tests to refer to. Luckily, in your case, those tests have led us to conclude that a strict quarantine period would be unnecessary in this case."

"However," he continued, "it would also be irresponsible to simply set you free into a world that you have had almost no contact with, and a world that knows almost nothing about you. As a result, ever since we made the first discovery of this new batch of hybrids, we've been quickly evaluating various options that could help to ease you into society."

The slide flipped this time to a picture of a sleek, modern building, with a grassy courtyard in front of it. All around the courtyard were dozens of humans, people about their age, carrying backpacks and clustered around large books spread out on the ground.

"The director of the CSSPP has been in ongoing consultations with a number of different agencies, and the most compelling current option for a controlled and useful environment would be that of a traditional college. Looking over your notes, you have all already completed a rigorous set of academic coursework, and will be shortly issued the equivalent of high school diplomas for your efforts. Under other circumstances, I'd congratulate you on your graduation, but for now it should suffice to say that your next destination beyond this laboratory will be one of several colleges around the country that have agreed to work with us."

He clicked again, and the slideshow disappeared, the image on the screen going back to the desktop. "So, that's about it. I realize that it's short notice, but the accommodations are in place, and we need to lock down this lab in order to finish our investigation. What that means, then, is that this isn't just some speculative plan for your future - it's happening today. I'll be available for questions for a while after this presentation, but after that we're going to help get your stuff packed up and get you on your way to your new living arrangements. In any case, they're a step up from what you have now, and you'll have a whole campus to explore and people to hang out with before classes start up in a few months. I realize that this is all quite abrupt, and probably a considerable shift for you, but it really isn't all that different from what you've been doing so far: living in a relatively controlled environment and gradually learning what you need to know in order to become a fully integrated member of our society. I'm not saying it'll be easy, but given how mature and well-behaved you've all been so far, I think you'll adapt to it readily. So... any questions?"

Bill shot his hand up. "Yes?" Emmett asked.

"What's going to happen to the people who raised us?"

"Well... honestly, I don't know. I'd say that they're probably going to go to prison, but as there are so many of them, and because this project is so widespread, I really don't know for sure what will happen. Whatever happens, though, you probably won't be able to see them again for quite some time, and for that I apologize. I know some of you may have had an attachment to them, but remember that the most important thing is that you still have each other, something that's not going to change. And, of course, you have the support of the CSSPP and its attendant resources should they be necessary. If you are still having problems, there will be people we will have available for you to talk to."

Bill raised his hand. "You said that we're going to a college, but do we have to stay there? We know that there's a whole world out there, and we've only seen the parts of it that are inside this building. When can we get to see everything else?"

"Again, I don't know for sure. The colleges are all across the country, though, so you'll get to see at least some of it on your way there. The colleges also aren't just the inside of a single building - they're large campuses with a lot of different buildings and grounds to explore. You'll need to stay on campus, though, at least for a while, so that we can make sure you're ready before venturing out into general society. Once that happens, you'll probably be allowed to visit the nearby cities if we can find a way for you to do so safely. At some point, though, probably once you've graduated, you'll be a full citizen, and then, if you wish, you'll be able to go most anywhere you please as long as you can find a way to get there."

Bill seemed happy with that response, and Freddie realized that he was too. He knew that the CSSPP people had a point - he looked a lot different from the humans around him, and knew almost nothing at all about how they interacted with each other outside of the sterile lab environment. That, and even just being able to go from the stifling corridors to a completely new environment was exciting in and of itself. He'd read enough about what colleges were that he knew at least some of what he could expect. And, oddly enough, he actually felt prepared for it. They'd known, for close to a year, that their future was quickly becoming uncertain, and to have a new certainty offered to them, even one with which they had no experience, somehow seemed like the way things were supposed to be.

A few of the others asked more specific and variably informed questions, like whether there would be food there (yes) and whether they would be living together with humans instead of just with each other (also yes). The conference was soon over, though, and they were shepherded back to the bedroom to pack up their things.

It was a relatively quick process, all told. The handful of clothes that Freddie had went into a black suitcase with wheels on the bottom, and the few books that were considered to be "his" were tucked into a side pocket. Aside from that, all Freddie really had was his tablet, which the agents allowed him to hold onto as they were escorted from the bedroom and through the previously locked double doors.

They went down a series of florescent-lit hallways, the doors to either side occasionally opened to rooms filled with scientific or computer equipment, which groups of various agents were studying carefully. After traversing several of them they ended up in a garage, filled only with a variety of vans with CSSPP emblazoned on the sides, along with a large tour bus. Freddie and the others climbed inside, bouncing eagerly on the large, plush seats and staring out the tinted windows as the bus doors closed and the limbering vehicle slowly accelerated. Then the bus tilted up as it emerged from an underground ramp, and suddenly the facility was behind them, leaving them on a meandering country road with wooden fences and green fields to either side.

The bus was suddenly oddly hushed, as all of them pressed their faces up to the windows, captivated by the new sights flashing by around them. The fields soon gave way to ivy-strewn sound walls as they pulled onto a highway, walls that quickly gave way to clusters of houses and buildings, themselves giving way to immense high-rise towers as they pulled into a downtown area.

Soon, those faded slightly into the distance, as the bus pulled around a massive terminal building. As it did, though, there was a tremendous roar from overhead, and they watched in awe as a massive airplane swooped down over them on landing approach. The bus continued on past the terminal, though, and eventually pulled to a stop at a private section of the airport, near a hangar where a smaller jet was waiting, the stairs on its side already extended.

They were escorted off the bus, marveling at the wide-open space surrounding them, and at the massive white fuselages of jumbo jets lumbering along the runways in the distance. Even though it was an oddly industrial sight, it was still amazingly more expansive than the tiny outdoor area they were accustomed to. While they were eager to simply walk around, explore, and enjoy being truly out in the open air, the agents quickly rounded them up and hustled them onto the airplane.

The inside was a little more cramped than the bus, but with swiveling, reclining chairs and ample windows to enjoy the view from. Freddie grabbed a chair near the front, with an unobstructed view ahead of the long white wing that extended outward further back. He had learned about planes before, marveling at how they could soar miles into the sky when he could only jump up a scant few feet before plummeting back down. He'd never imagined actually being on one, though.

Aside from the sixteen of them and a few agents, the small jet was otherwise empty, and they had plenty of room. There were a few tables about, with haphazard piles of granola bars and packets of beef jerky spread across them - not the most coherent lunch, but good enough, and Freddie was soon digging into one of the jerky packets eagerly. As they settled in, he could hear the stairs retracting, and an agent slowly pulled the door shut, something spinning within to seal it against the side of the aircraft.

The plane began to roll forward, slower than the bus, but with jet engines thrumming a muted roar behind him. Freddie watched the airport go by, the glass terminal glinting in the sun as the plane taxied around and aligned itself with one of the long runways. Then the roar of the engines turned into a scream, and the plane jolted forward, rumbling as it sped down the runway. Then, suddenly, the rumbling stopped as the plane angled upward, and Freddie looked out the window as the ground began to fall away.

As the plane ascended, he heard one of the girls behind him say "Whoa," and a moment later he felt someone next to him. He looked over to see Tommy practically fall into his lap, stumbling along the suddenly uneven surface of the floor. The chair was big enough that he was able to scoot over and share it with Tommy, the both of them pressing their faces up almost against the surface of the small, thick window as the cars and houses dwindled to toylike proportions far below.

"This is the most amazing thing ever," Tommy said in an awed tone of voice, and Freddie realized that he was probably right. It was one thing to read about, but another to actually be doing it. Amazing was an excellent word for it - this morning, after all, he'd known nothing of the world beyond a series of hallways and a small patch of sky, and by the afternoon, he was literally soaring through the clouds. The view was obscured for a moment as they climbed through a patch of grey haze, but then they pulled above, and Freddie looked down on a white, fluffy patchwork of clouds. He'd seen them on occasion before, but they had always seemed so far away, but there they were up close, almost close enough to touch if the plane hadn't been in the way.

After a while, though, the clouds solidified into a solid blanket, and even their novelty eventually wore off. The plane leveled off, and people were beginning to wander around. Freddie ate a bit more, the feeling of flight not seeming to perturb him at all, although a couple of the boys looked very uncomfortable and didn't touch any of the food. Freddie eventually wandered over to a table where one of the agents had pulled out a pack of playing cards, and they played a game that was for some reason based around fishing until the plane began to descend.

Freddie was glued to the window as the process happened again, only this time in reverse - tiny houses and cars swelling slowly to full size, until the plane was swooping low over them. As they landed, though, the houses disappeared behind them, and they swooped over what looked like a pair of guard towers before touching down with a bump on another runway. Looking around, the area seemed different than the first airport - the planes here were shaped differently, grey instead of white, with a big star and circle emblazoned on their sides. The vehicle that greeted them when the doors opened was also different - instead of a bus, it was a canvas-topped truck, with benches along the sides in back. The ride was bumpy but short, ending in what the agents explained was an unused military-style barracks where they would be spending the night. The building was spare, with bare walls and a series of bunks, but someone had thought to place a large pile of pillows and blankets in the open space on the floor between them. Dinner was again provided by way of a large stack of white pizza boxes, and while the shower stalls weren't all that different from the lab, the hot water was considerably more intermittent. As there wasn't much of anything to do afterwards in the mostly empty building, and no internet connection for the tablets, Freddie and the others mostly used them to play games or watch the installed educational videos until it was time for bed. Their suitcases were still packed away, so they stripped down to their underwear again and curled up in their customary pile on the floor, Tommy's head nuzzled comfortably against Freddie's chest. The girls were still there, though, and the agents, so they had to skip their usual nighttime activities again - after the experiences of the day, though, and all of the excitement that they had provided, Freddie found himself drifting off to sleep quickly after he snuggled himself comfortably in among his peers.

The next day, they were awakened a little later, and had the excess pizza from the previous night, cold, for breakfast. Freddie wasn't quite sure whether he liked it as much cold, but on the other hand, meat was meat. Afterwards, they got dressed and headed out into the morning sun, heat already beginning to ripple up from the tarmac around them. This time, another tour bus pulled up instead of the military-style truck, their luggage already loaded aboard.

Once they were seated, the bus pulled out, running through the town before turning down another road that wound its way along the outskirts. After traveling on it a short ways, they entered another area that almost looked like a small city, but was laid out a bit differently, featuring a lot more grass and walkways in between buildings. Freddie realized that this was their eventual destination, and a few minutes later, they pulled up in front of a series of uniform-looking white concrete buildings, with a sign that said "Arden S. Quillig Dormitories" on the side of the the most prominent one.

"Okay, you guys, end of the line," one of the agents seated towards the front of the bus said. "Once you get outside, check with one of the people wearing a blue name tag, and they'll let you know where you're going to be staying." The agent looked back towards the outside for a moment, everyone else on the bus following his gaze towards the cluster of white buildings.

"Welcome to your new home, guys. Trust me when I say I think it's gonna work out a lot better than your previous one."

One by one, they filed off the bus, blinking in the midday sun. Once Freddie's eyes had adjusted to the outside, he glanced around the parking lot in front of the building, and quickly noticed something that he hadn't paid attention to before. Milling around between the other vehicles and the entrance to the building were people. The most remarkable thing about them, though, was that they were just normal, regular people. Up until then, the only people Freddie had really seen had either worn lab coats, government-issued windbreakers, or some other sort of official uniform. These people, though, were just wearing what looked to be casual clothing, hauling around suitcases and boxes and otherwise doing things that didn't directly involve Freddie and his peers. Even more remarkably, though, there were even people walking back and forth that were around Freddie's own age - while some of the people at the lab had been on the younger side, and Freddie had learned about the theoretical existence of human children through his studies, up until then he hadn't been entirely certain that humans didn't just emerge fully formed from a similar tube at age thirty.

For a moment, Freddie just stood in place, watching the stream of people trickling in and out of the building. As the rest of his peers fanned out from the bus, he realized that many of the people outside were doing the same, setting down their loads and looking over in Freddie's direction with undisguised curiosity. Of course, he knew, it was more than understandable - while he didn't know the exact circumstances of what had happened yet, he was at least aware that while he had grown up around at least some humans, most of them had never seen anyone like him in person before today. Freddie wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to react, though, so he simply smiled and waved at them. Several of them waved back, although the looks on some of their faces were difficult to read.

One of them seemed to be walking over to Freddie, but before he was able to, a young man in a bright yellow polo shirt with a blue-framed adhesive name-tag quickly jumped in front of him. Freddie glanced down at the tag, which read "George" in big block letters.

"Hey there!" the man said, a wide and somewhat forced-looking grin on his face. "My name's George Traynor, and I'm one of the outreach advisors here at Arborvale College. We're here to get you settled in to your new surroundings, and let me just say, it's a pleasure and an honor to meet someone of your unique, um..." he trailed off for a moment, and returned on a different tack. "Anyhoo, from the sound of it, you guys aren't particularly familiar with this facility, so would you like me to tell you a little more about it?"

"Sure, I guess..."

"Great! For starters, Arborvale College is a private liberal arts university, providing the finest in undergraduate education in a research-park-style environment that fosters creativity and innovation. Our capable and experienced instructors, along with our state-of-the-art facilities, are designed to give you the leg up you need to compete in the rapid pace of today's modern world."

Freddie looked down at his legs for a moment, slightly confused. "A leg up... that's a... figure of speech, right? I can't figure out how it would work otherwise..."

To his credit, George didn't seem to skip a beat. "Yes, that's right, it's not a literal thing. I apologize - it's just part of the script, didn't mean to be confusing. I heard a little bit about your background, so I know you've been a bit... sheltered. That being said, though, that may be why you're here, with our particular outreach program - we're a small school with a relatively isolated campus, which gives you the opportunity to learn and explore without the noise and complexity of the outside world. We're a full residential campus, with all the services you could need outside of major medical right here on site, and there are RAs and support staff on call whenever you need them."

George gestured with the clipboard in his hands. "There'll be plenty more information at the orientation later on, though, so unless you have any questions right now..." Freddie shook his head, and George glanced down at the small electronic tablet that was clipped into place, a stylus seeming to materialize in his hand before flicking back and forth between his fingers. "All right, let's see... can I get your name?"

"Freddie."

"Last name?"

"Cattanzo."

"Ah, yes, here we go... Frederick Cattanzo. I'm, uh, guessing you're not actually Italian, though?"

"Um, I'm pretty sure I'm from... here?" Freddie still wasn't exactly sure where "here" was, especially after the plane ride, but he was relatively sure it was at least the same country.

"Fair enough. So, actually, it looks like you're going to be assigned to the building that's right over there - Room 22C, on the second floor. I'll go ahead and check you in right now, and... hmm, looks like your roommate is already here. If you want, you can go up now and say hi, and I'll have someone collect your luggage and bring it up to you in a bit."

"Okay," Freddie replied, and George quickly waved him towards the entrance before walking up to one of Freddie's other classmates. Freddie looked around, but the person who had been walking up before had moved on. He glanced around for a moment more, and then began walking towards the entrance, and as he did, noticed that the group of Bill, Dwight, and Tommy were walking in the same direction. They joined up at the entrance, and after comparing assignments, realized that they would be relatively close together: Tommy was assigned to 21A, while Bill and Dwight were 22A and B, respectively. Freddie looked between them, and they all looked as excited as he was. Sure, the beige hallways of the building's interior weren't all that much of a departure from the lab, aside from the much nicer carpet, but now a great expanse of outside was just a few steps away, and up just one flight of stairs were people that they could actually interact with, freely, without the regimented formality of those they had dealt with up until now.

They raced up the stairs, their feet pounding up the metal steps with a din that echoed along the stairwell, before opening the door onto the second floor. Right there, along the wall, were doors several yards apart, and the first ones they encountered on the left were labeled 21 and 22. Freddie got there first, throwing the door open and darting into the room.

The room, in fact, was a narrow hallway, with a bathroom not unlike the one at the lab opening up off to the left, with an identical open doorway on the other side. Just beyond that, in what was probably a similar hallway, was a slightly opened door with a placard above it that read "21A-D". Ahead, the hallway appeared to empty out into what looked like a small kitchen, with a large microwave unit on the counter, although Freddie could only see part of the room from where he was standing. He would have plenty of time to explore the rest of the area, though, he was sure, and while Tommy wandered over to room 21 and the others decided to take a look at the other parts of the facility, Freddie turned to look at the other side of the hallway.

Sure enough, there was a door marked "22A-D," and a door that was also slightly ajar. Freddie pushed it open to reveal a large, square room with white walls, two windows at the corner, several solid-looking wooden desks, and a good assortment of cardboard boxes. Standing in the midst of them, though, was a short boy with a shock of bright red hair, pale-looking skin, and a pair of tortoiseshell-patterned horn-rimmed glasses. The boy looked back at him, seeming almost surprised, but after a moment allowed a small, hesitant grin to play across his face. The boy moved one of the boxes by his feet out of the way. Freddie returned the smile, striding forward to greet his new roommate - and also, he realized, to inaugurate a new chapter in his life: one that he was sure would be fascinating, intriguing, and for the first time, truly free.

*** To be continued in the next arc, "An Unconventional Education" ***